DBS D05 has launched an e-CNY merchant collection solution in China, one of the first foreign banks there to do so.
The solution allows corporate clients of DBS China to collect payments from their customers in e-CNY, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) and leverage on the automated settlement of e-CNY directly into their CNY bank deposit account.
Among other benefits, the solution enables seamless reconciliation by providing consolidated merchant reports with itemised e-CNY transactions — with the report accessible via DBS IDEAL, the bank’s digital platform for business banking.
DBS China CEO Ginger Cheng says the bank has completed its first e-CNY collection for a client – a catering company in Shenzhen. “This showcases our dual commitment of making banking joyful for our clients while actively supporting the development of China’s financial market innovation,” she adds.
e-CNY usage in China has grown steadily since its pilot launch in April 2020. There were over 13.6 billion e-CNY in circulation as at December 2022. The CBDC is currently accepted across 26 cities and 17 provinces in China, with adoption expected to grow further as the programme gradually expands to more regions.
In Singapore, DBS is one of the co-founders of Partior, an independent company transforming cross-border payments and global interbank value movement following an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) dubbed Project Ubin.
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The bank has also participated in other initiatives, such as the MAS-led Project Orchid and Project Guardian. The former is a project to develop infrastructure for the issuance of a programmable digital SGD, while the latter is for exploring the settlement of foreign exchange and government security transactions using permissioned decentralised finance protocols.
